Basketball's not big at all in England, although Lual Deng profile is slowly changing that.

I went to see the London team from the BBL (British Basketball League) play about 6 months, crowd was probably no more than 400 or so, more than you'd get at your average ABL game but far less than what you'd see in the NBL.

The standard of the game was like the crowds, somewhere between ABL and NBL. They don't seem to have the same import restriction rules we have in the NBL as I'm pretty sure one of the teams was fielding at least 4 players from the States. About 2 years ago Dennis Rodman played one or 2 games for one of the team (Brighton?) and that generated a lot of publicity and filled the stands, FWIW he didn't do much in the stats column but I'm not sure this is neccessarily indicitive of the standard of the league.

The most annoying thing about the game I went to was the fact the MC was commentating through the ENTIRE GAME as though we were listening on radio and not actually there seeing things unfold "Smith dribbles down the court, passes to Jones on the wing....". It was genuinely terrible, made worse by his London ghetto accent and the fact he clearly didn't know much about the game.

I did manage to score the prize in the 50/50 raffle, a lazy 20 pounds for my troubles (they sold a wopping 40 tickets!) so that more than covered the entrance fee which from memory was around 8 pounds (AU$20).

(Mod: Informative - cheers.)

At the breaks, instead of chucking back sports drinks the players chuck down hot chips!

I know that Derek Rucker played as an import for the Birmingham Bullets many years ago, in between his NBL stints.

Import eligibility is a bit different, they have a two-import limit, but European leagues can play anyone who can get a passport from any European country as a "local". If any of the "Americans" had a European parent or grandparent they could get a passport and become an instant local. Or they could be like JR Holden, an "American" who plays for CSKA and Russia, they just gave him a passport so he could play for the national team. David Andersen also plays for CSKA as a "local" as he has a Danish passport, so in addition to these two, CSKA fields two Americans as their imports.

Geez basketballs are coming cheap these days

That sounds like something someone with less than 5 balls would say Lockstock!

Ouch! hahaha good call.

Apparently the British team are trying to talk Ben Gordon and Kelena Azubuike into joining their squad for olympic qualifiers as both were born in the UK, as well they've got Michael Olowokandi, some big scottish bloke who played for the grizzlies and a few other guys with african names but british passports. I watched a few games on tv while i was over there and it was a fairly low standard. Seeing crap leagues around the world however gives me more hope for the NBL.

"some big scottish bloke who played for the grizzlies" would be Robert Archibald.

Link to an ESPN story about the British attempt to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

I think if they're trying to get Ben Gordon then surely they can't have Deng as well, it's the same situation but reversed, Deng born early childhood in Sudan (I think?) moved to UK as a child, Gordon born and early childhood in the UK before moving to the States.

If they do manage to pull it off though then look out, basketball's the type of game where a handful of superstars supported by role players who know their role can be extremely successful.

Adding Gordon is okay because he was born in England. The limit in the Olympics is one naturalised player, which would be Deng.